AJ!
Built both the F5 and AJ, the AJ is so smooth and light on the ears, I found the F5 harsh by comparison.
Wow, something must be wrong with it. Of all the descriptors I can come up with, Harsh isnt one of them. What speakers?
Russellc
In the spectrum of smoothness (Keith Stone....You're so smooth!) the
F3 takes the cake. Then J2 and AJ. On the less forgiving side, the F5.
In the spectrum of smoothness (Keith Stone....You're so smooth!) the
F3 takes the cake. Then J2 and AJ. On the less forgiving side, the F5.
I can't wait to finish my F3... couldn't find any machine oil for tapping last night!
A pair of homebuilt SQ-50 C2 http://www.valutronic.se/SQ-50C2.html, it was mostly suttle but in one of my tracks it wasn't.
If I remember correctly it was especially the trumpets in the track where the F5 sounded harsh, calling attention to the music and not blending into the background like the AJ did.
Although none of them came close to my previous amp in harshness, a non Class A amp which by reviews is awesome but didn't even come close to either the F5 or the AJ, hooked up the AJ to one speaker and the old amp to the other, matched volume then played with the channel balance slider back and forth and was blown away with the difference
I tried the F5 with my ESL 2805 and with a Apogee Stage and works well (Not enough power).
Interesting Poll.
I'm quite tickled with the older Zen amps. My favorite, which led to a ton of tinkering, was the ZV7. I learned more from that differential, choke loaded design than any other project. Of course, now that I take time to ponder, the Aleph X was a blast too. Oh dear, the original Zen was fun because she was my first step into the world of Class A. That's the amp for which I fabricated my first 75 lb DIY heat sink and chassis, and the amp that, because of it's low power, gave me a reason to design and tinker around with my paper mache horns. Geeze, in hindsight, I owe a ton to Nelson.
I'm quite tickled with the older Zen amps. My favorite, which led to a ton of tinkering, was the ZV7. I learned more from that differential, choke loaded design than any other project. Of course, now that I take time to ponder, the Aleph X was a blast too. Oh dear, the original Zen was fun because she was my first step into the world of Class A. That's the amp for which I fabricated my first 75 lb DIY heat sink and chassis, and the amp that, because of it's low power, gave me a reason to design and tinker around with my paper mache horns. Geeze, in hindsight, I owe a ton to Nelson.
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